Bone marrow grafting in the secondary closure of alveolar-palatal defects in children

The material presented in this paper is a preliminary report on the use of bone marrow grafting in the secondary closure of alveolar palatal defects in young children with mixed dentition. A group of patients is presented in whom successful closure of an alveolar fistula was achieved with improvement of the eruption pattern of the teeth adjacent to the cleft due to new bone formation that allowed early orthodontic alignment. The concept of the formation of a dynamic growing bone from bone marrow grafting is discussed.